HERE ARE 7 HEALTHY WAYS THAT HELPED ME AND ARE STILL HELPING ME TO OVERCOME (SEVERE) DEPRESSION.
Hello, my name is Sofia Lena Perissinotto, I am a Swedish and Italian girl and I am new to this amazing blog 😊, founded by Margaret Dallospedale (a really beautiful person) ❤️.
I would like to take you with me on a journey, I am going to write, mostly at the beginning, about MENTAL HEALTH, A VERY IMPORTANT ARGUMENT FOR ME. Do you also feel the same as I do? Feel free to comment it if you want :). Mental health is a vast and maybe a difficult area to discuss, write about, so I am going to divide this area into smaller parts and write specifically about them, for example: social anxiety, depression and so on… This journey could be for some of you difficult BUT it could also be HELPFUL 😊.
So I am going to begin this journey with some tools that are helping me to manage and overcome (severe) depression and if you want, feel free to share other tips that is/are or has helped you along the way…
You may wonder why they are still helping me…that is because this is a JOURNEY, a journey towards self-love, self-acceptance..not a BORING German/French literature or whatever you want school lesson!!!
So, one of the first tools that came to my help was:
- MINDFULNESS: ACCEPTING THIS EXACT MOMENT AND MAKE THE BEST OUT OF IT.
I was introduced to mindfulness by my mother’s Swedish best friend in 2022 while I was quite at the beginning of my modelling career, I didn’t really know how things worked in this new complicated world, the COMMUNICATION between me and the bookers of my agency WAS REALLY BAD, I started to feel anxious because 6 months have gone and no castings (I did many tests, in almost all my test shootings I was having much fun BUT some of them were really USELESS). So, my mom’s Swedish friend helped me along the way TO BE PRESENT, MINDFUL and I am so grateful for her support, she showed me techniques, apps that I want to share with you because they have helped me and still do (because remember, that this is a journey). In this article I am going to share the APPS then further on techniques 😊. She showed me the Mindfulness App, for me it’s a very good app because there are many meditations ( both free and payment) then you can go to settings (impostazioni), click on daily reminders, timetable, in this way you are reminded when to meditate, you can receive daily notices saying like: BE MINDFUL, STOP MULTITASKING and so on… ❤️
Another important app for me is INSIGHT TIMER: here I have found many body-scans, soothing,calming music…
MINDFULNESS came really to my help some months ago, when I was not in a good place, I was seriously depressed.
I am going to write about THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION in my next article 😊. I am going to write about this topic because I do feel that MEDITATION AND MINDFULNESS ARE CONNECTED .
JOURNALING: I was introduced to the concept of journaling at the age of 16 by my previous psychologist because, I was not, once again, feeling well at all…(I am going to write, in one of my next articles about BEING ON A CONSTANT ROLLER COASTER.)
This important tool became also necessary some months ago when I was severely depressed.
I began, and still do 😊, writing about MY INNER STRUGGLES so I could/can also share them to my psychiatrist, psychologist, to my closest family members, Then after sometime: setting BABY STEPS (SMALL GOALS) for this day or this morning that I had to go through in the best way I could, such as: drink enough water, wash my face, walk in my garden s house to get some fresh air. After a while also GRATITUDE, being grateful for what I had in that exact moment for example I am grateful for my good warm cup of herbal tea, I am grateful for my mom and dad and so on. Later on I congratulated myself for my SMALL WINS that I had achieved…TELLING MYSELF AND WRITING ALSO: good job Sof you did the best you could today or I hug myself for being courageous enough to have done yoga this week. I began and, continue to do😊, (also) putting MOTIVATIONAL STICKERS: like hearts, stars, be kind to yourself, self love/acceptance. I do also draw hearts when I need some extra self-love ( heart ) and so on.
- YOGA: I was introduced to yoga at the age of seventeen
I was introduced to yoga at the age of seventeen (if you want ❤️ you can click to my instagram link where you will find my first yoga reel, where I explain THE REASON I STARTED YOGA AND THE IMPORTANCE OF IT ❤️) because, once again, I was not feeling good at all, I was not feeling at ease at school, I was also, beginning to search some modeling agencies (because that made me so happy, I had so much pain inside me and modeling was my escape from all those people at school judging me, around my back, and also giving me, here and there, not pleasant looks.) I felt very lonely there, and very tired due to my severe anxiety. So I began taking yoga lessons with my mom ❤️. The first lessons (and I’m saying like 10 lessons) I could not find relief. It was during the beginning of Covid19, I could say in the middle of February 2020,where most schools started to do distance lessons from home, that I began to find an INNER CONNECTION WITH YOGA 🧘🏻♀️.
I remember also, doing yoga distance lessons, I was very grateful for that ❤️. From there on yoga became an essential tool. ❤️
As I mentioned before, a couple of months ago, I was severely depressed my new journey of recovery began with 1)MINDFULNESS, then JOURNALING, then one day in the middle of September I re-started(slowly) with some yoga and from there on I never stopped ❤️. After a while I began to notice that after having done yoga, I was still not able to breath correctly, I told that to my current therapist and she recommended me to do Individual yoga classes. I contacted my yoga teacher, and almost immediately, at the first class she noticed that I was taking very deep breaths to calm myself down and she told me that I was not breathing correctly. I have just done few lessons with her 😊 BUT I am already noticing a difference in my breathing. (In one of my next articles I will be writing about what I have learnt and I am learning from her lessons :) 😀 also about GROUNDING).
•SELF-CARE/KINDNESS-LOVE TOWARDS YOURSELF: Since I discovered that I had acne, at the age of 17, and my interest on becoming a model, I began taking care of my skin ❤️using products aimed to help curing my acne, I started with morning/night routines: detergents, skin creams, face masks… I was also drinking lots of water, eating delicious, healthy meals.
Again, during my severe depression period I stopped doing all of that. ( I will explain in one of my next articles about DEPRESSION and how it can affect your body,mind…)
During one of my tough periods of this year, I had to change antidepressants, one of the reasons that my acne got back.
So I began taking a new kind of medication after being to the dermatologist.
That’s when I slowly re-started taking care of my skin, BUT NOT ONLY THAT, I also began taking meaningful, calming warming showers (especially now with this weather 🥰)
My current therapist ❤️❤️ introduced me to essential oils, lavender is our favourite:) because it is so calming, I use it before going to sleep, just 2-3 drops are necessary to feel the scent of it❤️💜😴.
POSITIVE SELF-TALK:MANTRAS=loving ones that make you feel at ease with yourself like: I AM UNIQUE, I AM BEAUTIFUL AS I AM❤️ (I am going to explain more about AFFIRMATIONS in my next topic: THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION❤️🧘♀️☯️)
•LIGHT-THERAPY : I was introduced to it by my current therapist ❤️ quite at the beginning of this year. I was beginning to be very depressed.
so one of the things she recommended me was Light-therapy.
I am not very informed about this topic BUT I would like to learn more about it. :)
•TRY NOT TO DRINK TOO MUCH COFFEE:
Especially in the last few years, I’ve been drinking coffee regularly, at least one a day.
I loved too (still do, BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY 😊) go to nice cafes both in Italy and in Sweden and take a good soy (in Italy), oat, coconut (in Sweden) caffè latte/cappuccino. Also at home (Italy-Sweden) I regularly prepared cappuccini and if we were going out “why not taking one more?” I would say. I drank also tea BUT NOT REGULARLY.
During my severe depression period (this year) I just wanted, mostly, to drink caffè lattes, cappuccinos ☕️ and I wasn’t really paying much attention on the caffè latte’s good smell, I just wanted to drink it and go to bed again.
It was, again, in the middle of September that I started, with the help of MINDFULNESS, to enjoy drinking good, warm cups of herbal teas and teas. From my experience I think it’s better to drink more herbal tea and less tea because it contains theine. BUT I LOVE ❤️ to have a specific day of the week-end, for me it is Sunday:) where I enjoy my cup of oat-latte in the morning 🌅 AND I don’t want you to think that this, is a sort of regime :) If I go to a caffè and feel for a capuccino I TAKE IT, the importance is that I do not take it everyday because since I’ve started to drink more tea a part of me is more relaxed. There are so many kind of good teas 🍵 and herbal teas 🍵 :). I love ❤️, as herbal teas: camomile, orange,ginger and vanilla…or before going to sleep again camomile, my mindfulness coach recommended us (my family) Kvällsro, this if you are in Sweden 🥰 otherwise there are many kinds of herbal teas in supermarkets, health food stores…💚🧘♀️
•GOING TO BED EARLY: last but not least the importance of going to bed EARLY:) ✨️
I believe, from what I remember, that I started to go to bed EARLY
(apart from when I was very young)
at 16-17 years old, (sometimes) due
•to my severe anxiety,
•to my NOT feeling good at school,
•to my antidepressants (unfortunately they do also have side-effects…BUT TAKING THEM WERE AND ARE ALSO ESSENTIAL…)
I went to bed exhausted at 9:00 o’ clock ⏰️. Further on, after finishing school I continued to go to bed at a certain time.I stopped also scrolling on social medias because IT’S NOT HEALTHY (MENTALLY) to see the screen especially in the darkness…BUT especially when you are depressed. IN MY EXPERIENCE, SEEING OTHERS DO THINGS… MADE ME EVEN MORE SAD.
I would Instead recommend before falling asleep to do a meditation, body scan, listen to an audio book….❤️🧘♀️
If you want :) ❤️🥰 go to my instagram where you will soon find a Reel about what I wrote in this article: 7 ways to manage depression.❤️
See you soon 👋🏻
With love Sofia Lena ❤️
Testi, links e Photo credit responsabilità di Sofia Perissinotto
Post non sponsorizzato